Lion, Monkey and the Boy
Proud of You The dark-skinned boy approached the door of a home. Before sliding the door open he stopped and removed his feet from his shoes. Rather than taking them inside, he kept them outside the door. Reaching for the handle, he looked to the bright shining sun. Eyebrow lifting, he slid the door open prepared to enter the home--his home. "OH I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" A woman's voice shouted, rushing to the door and jumping onto the ebony child. Unlike him, the woman's skin complexion was the complete opposite. Her dark blue mane shrouded his body like a gown, but she didn't care. She continued to drown him in kisses and tight hugs until she had been fully satisfied with her pampering. "Oh Yoshirou, you make me so proud every day! Congratulations on graduating!" The woman released him and balled her hand into a fist and gripped that hand's bicep with her opposite hand. "None of the other mothers there were as proud of you as I was. And they had better not be, or I'd kick one of their asses myself. No one can beat my baby and his mother, the great Yoshino Uchiha! You'll be the greatest genin this village has ever produced!" Yoshino claimed, holding her position and shaking her fist. Yes, she was the boy's mother. Yoshirou simply smiled at his mother's enthusiasm. "Thanks, momma'." he began, walking past her into the room on the right. It was his room. He walked over to his bed and lifted his bag from and it slung it over his back, slipping both of his arms into the straps, then walked from the room. "It seems we'll be broken up into genin squads tomorrow, then we'll be meeting with our sensei as well." Yoshirou pasued, "Didn't think it'd be so early," he bent over to get a quick stretch in. "Thought I'd have more time to train on my control. Maybe I'll end up being more like you ma'." She was curious. Lifting her hand, she pointed towards the kitchen. "You don't want anything to eat, honey? It seems like you're getting ready to go somewhere." The milf asked, already well aware of what his answer would be. "No ma', imma' go out and train." He began as he walked towards the door of the house trying to slip past her before she could go on to ask any more questions. "I know you're going to go out and hunt, Yoshirou. I don't have to follow you around to know that. Plus, you'd just sense me out if I tried that." Yoshirou's eyes widened for a moment, he knew just how much his mother hated his hunting shenanigans so he just knew he'd been in trouble. "But today I'll give you a pass for your great work at the academy. Just promise me you'll be safe!" Smiling, the ebony Uchiha nodded his head and rushed for the door sliding it and stepping out. Stepping into his shoes, he waved at his mother. "I'll be back later!" A Prodigy Can Train After a thirty-minute commute, Yoshirou finally reached his favorite hunting location. He approached a small shack within the lonely forest and entered it without fear. Pushing the door opened, he pulled his bag from his back and pulled a lamp from it. Turning it on, he walked to the center of the shack and placed it on the table there. Reaching into the bag again, he pulled out a notebook and flipped through the many written pages to a specific one. "Alright, today, what's on the agenda?" He asked himself, skimming over the page. "Meditation, stealth, and shurikenjutsu, today huh?" Closing the notebook he placed it onto the table and headed back to the door to exit the shake. There was a pile of three completely different shaped rocks. There was a large one, shaped like the letter "D" that laid on its flat side. The second one was a rock shaped like the lowercase letter "l" and finally the other was just a circle. "Meditation is good." Yoshirou told himself, "It'll help me better control my chakra. If I don't take this part of my training into the next gear, then I'll be using incomplete jutsu for the rest of my life." Stepping to the pile of rocks, Yoshirou used his strength to stack them in a rather unusual way. He placed the thin one at the bottom so that it stood straight up and placed the others on top. With his hands placed firmly on the stones, he leaped on top of them and took up a criss-cross seated position. Closing his eyes, a light blue shroud expelled from his body and covered him like a cloak. This was him releasing his chakra and beginning a process known as synergizing. Yoshirou cleared his mind of all thoughts and continued to pour his chakra out. He took deep breathes in through his nose and exhaled them through his mouth, forcing his muscles to relax as he did. By meditating he'd been working on an improved heart rate, breathing, and brain waves so that he could keep a level head in high stressed environments and most important in battles. He remained in this stationary position for three hours solid, not moving even a centimeter. The sun passed its setting phase and it was fully dark outside, just a little past 21:00. Yoshirou was truly becoming one with his chakra. By this time, his chakra had formed around him in a perfect sphere, sitting around him like a bubble. A feat not easy, even among a revered clan such as the Uchiha. Eyes opening, Yoshirou broke his meditation and flipped from the stacked stones landing to his feet. Knee bent and right palm spread across the ground, Yoshirou lifted his head and looked forward. In his view were multiple training dummies spread across the field in front of him. There were placed in an unorthodox pattern, not a single one lined up exactly where another was. A deep breath, Yoshirou slid his hands alongside his thighs until he reached his shinobi tool pouch. Reaching into them both, Yoshirou pulled out a number of and percent them into the spaces of his fingers, tightening them to hold them until he was ready to attack with them. Looking through the darkness, he found the eight training dummies but all he had in his hands were seven shurikens. He didn't even reach to grab another one, he instead shook his head and accepted the unfortunate calculation... Not that it mattered anyway as he'd hit all either of the targets. Straightening his stance, Yoshirou flicked his wrist and released a shuriken at the first target directly in front of himself, hitting it in the chest area. Flicking his wrist once again, he released another shuriken and struct the second dummy in the abdomen. Pulling both of his arms in front of himself, he flung them at an angle as though he were about to clap them together. However, the moment before impact, he released a shuriken from both hands causing the two to hit against each other altering them down the opposite paths. Sparks flew as the two pieces of metal clashed against each other, the shuriken both struck two separate dummies. His precision was unrivaled. His normal set of eyes gave off the false perception that he'd had his Sharingan active. Impossible considering he hadn't even awakened it yet. Regardless he had three shurikens left and four targets that still needed to be stricken. The final three were at about a fifty degrees angle from where he stood. Bending, Yoshirou jumped to the air and flicked his wrist yet again, he flung another shuriken to the dummy in the middle off the group remaining. Body flipping upside down, his twisted and spun like a , utilizing his minimal chakra control to sort of keep him within the air. Releasing yet another shuriken, he aimed at yet another target, making direct contact leaving only two targets and one shuriken to be utilized. Spinning faster, Yoshirou released the final shuriken and due to his spinning speed, the momentum of the ninja tool increased. However, unlike his previous throws, this one was not linear. It instead curved at an angle, like an arc but at the side aimed at an already struck dummy. Landing to his feet, Yoshirou watched his shuriken go to work. Once its curve finished, it clashed against the shuriken resting in one of the dummy's and with its momentum forced it out of the dummy. There were not two shuriken traveling and the curved one landed into the next dummy, while the clashed one landed into the final one. Yoshirou had effectively struck each of the dummies. With his back turned, Yoshirou closed his eyes and released his breath. "And if that enemy were to stand back to his feet," Yoshirou swiftly slid his hand down his thigh once again and grabbed a kunai from his tool pouch. Sticking his finger through the hole he spun it around his finger, performed a one hundred and eighty degree spin whilst releasing the kunai at the dummy to strike it. "You always keep a trick hidden." Jumping to the air, Yoshirou landed onto the tree line. Leaping from tree to tree, he found his favorite tree. It was an extremely overgrown thick oak tree. It was his favorite because it was utilized to train himself in controlling his chakra into a specific portion of his body. He'd fallen off of this tree plenty of times and others he reached what he felt was his peak for the moment. Lunging from the branch to the body of the Oaktree, Yoshirou focused chakra to his feet and stuck to it a like a nail in a wall. He hauled off in a full-fledged sprint up the tree, but it was not a linear trail. There were branches, spikes, beehives, webs, etc along the path. He moved strategically as he could. Dodging as he ran by actions of bobbing and weaving, he reached to his tool pouch and drew a kunai swiping at the step of the few beehives he passed by to disconnect them from the tree. It didn't take him long to reach the top of the tree, which he jumped from the bushy top and landed onto the uppermost branch of it. He stood there for a moment and looked into the moonlit night sky. "Oh, it's getting late!" He finally noticed, remembering his mother's words. All he could do is think about her once he returned home. Long story short, she was going to be very angry with him. Lost in thought, he had not noticed the swarm of beings in front of him. Even though they had no express that he could see, he knew for a fact that they were angry by their constant buzzing. Before he could properly react, they rushed towards him. "Ahhhh!" he screamed, foot slipping from the top of the tree's trunk and free-falling down the many branches and leaves. He was well over a hundred feet in the air and if he hit the ground, he'd surely die. Acting quickly, he reached into his tool pouch again, something he seemed to resort too quite often, and drew two kunai and a . Tying the two strings through the wholes of the kunai he flung one of the attached kunai into an opposing tree, jerking his body and fixing it so that he swung like a boy in the jungle. Releasing the wire string he free-fell about thirty feet and then flung the final kunai to swing safely to the ground. Exhaling, he sighed. "That was close." he told himself, jumping to the branches and heading back to the cabin. Once he reached it, he returned to his back and reached into it once again. Instead of pulling out a notebook, he instead pulled out a scroll. Sitting at the table, he opened the scroll and began to read the kanji inscribed on it. This was some type of technique his mother made and placed in a scroll which he stole so that he could study in his free time. For some reason, Yoshirou always felt attached to fūinjutsu. Could he understand the oddly written seals and scrolls, or was it something he'd genuinely been interested in? Either way, if Yoshino found out he'd stolen her scroll, he'd be in big trouble. "I'll finish this up then head home." Momma's Training Yoshirou stood in the field behind his home on one side and his mother on the other. "Alright Yoshirou! Show me what you've got!" His mother shouted, ready for battle. Silently nodding, the ebony youth brought his hands up and weaved through an array of hand seals at great speeds. Chakra kneaded at his core, but there was a slight miscommunication with the preparation for release. Yoshino noticed this which led to her lifting her eyebrow, but for the time she did not say anything. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" He claimed, calling out his technique. Releasing a ball of flames. But they didn't wouldn't stay in that form forever and Yoshino noticed it. She acted quickly, bringing her own hands up and allowed her fingers to dance through hand seals. Just before she'd began to gather chakra, she noticed Yoshirou's fire ball burst into a wild fire due to a lack of control. Kneading chakra in her own core, she responded with her own fire technique. "Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation"! she called out, releasing a wild wave of flames which clashed against Yoshirou's own. The resulting force of the two jutsu created an explosion. Debris kicked up into a cloud of dust and smoke which concealed the shinobi and kunoichi. Simply swiping her hand, she cleared the cloud with a gust of wind. "Work on it more, Yoshirou. --- However, to her surprise, Yoshirou had not been on the other end of that cloud. Instead, he revealed himself behind her holding his left palm underneath his wrist. A small cloud of smoke sheeted his being unveiling his summoned . Spinning and flipping in mid-air, Yoshirou twirled and released the overgrown shuriken to Yoshino's open rear. As a keen sensor, Yoshino detected Yoshirou behind her and turned around by completely a full one hundred and eighty-degree spin. As she did, her eyes were overtaken by a primary crimson painting endowed with three tomoe. Drawing her own katana, she followed the spinning power of the shuriken, her Sharingan enhancing her perception slowing it down for her to simply comprehend. Ducking, she dipped under the weapon and stuck her sword into its hole, stopping it from its original path halting it. Free hand holding her up on the ground, swiping her blade she flung the shuriken from it into the dirt. "Wow Yoshirou! I am your mother, I can't believe you'd strike me from the rear like that! You're gonna have a tough time with women if you play dirty like that." Straightening her stance, she shook her head left and right. "With your Sharingan, it'd be impossible to hit you, ma." Yoshirou debunked as he was well aware of his mother's abilities. "Besides, you taught me to use the unexpected as my weapon. So I did." Still shaking her head, Yoshino flung her weapon to her hip. "But, how were you able to summon? I didn't know you had access to summoning." The ebony boy stuck his hand behind his head and began to scratch it, acting just as surprised as his mother was. He knew he couldn't tell her, cause then that'd mean revealing that fact he often steals her fūinjutsu scrolls to study. "I happened to come across it." His mother's eyebrow lifted, "Right, you think you can get past the Undefeated Lionness, do you? You may be a prodigy, but I'm the best!" She asked, slowly lifting her fist as it ignited in flames. "Alright then, if you can do that, show me your fireball at full power." Nodding, Yoshirou bent his knees and began to weave through the hand seals necessary for the technique. The problem wasn't that Yoshirou couldn't preform the clan's famed technique, but it was that he had so much chakra that once he did, it simply exploded. He took a deep breath through his nose and paused for a moment. He thought back to the many times he meditated to help aid him in this process. A deep breath, which he'd just completed--a method taught to him by his mother. Spreading his nostrils, he released his breath through his nose in order to relax and loosen his muscles. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" he exclaimed, spitting out the kneaded chakra from his mouth into the form of a fireball--though unlike last time it remained in its ball form. "Good job, Yoshirou!" Straightening his stance, he met his mother with closed eyes and a warm smile. Taking a deep breath, he flipped through the same hand seals once more and then exhaled releasing another wave of flames. His reasoning for doing this was to show his mother that he had gotten move comfortable with kneading his chakra and controlling how it was exerted. However, unlike his last use of it where it had been aimed at the open area, he this time aimed it at Yoshino. He knew she had her Sharingan had been active, but he had to test the waters. He wanted to know just how much could he get away with. Flipping her hair behind her shoulder, Yoshino smiled slightly as she watched the ball of flames close in on her. Much like Yoshirou had done early, she held her wrist over her hand and a cloud of smoke engulfed the immediate area. Her figure had been completely masked by the cloud of smoke but it was not her intention. "Uchiha..." she called out from within the screen. In that subtle moment, the wind picked up and slowly pushed the cloud of smoke aside. She stood with a giant war fan in her hand, the Uchiha clan's signature Gunbai. "Return!" she exclaimed, releasing a powerful burst of wind at the moment the fireball came into contact with the weapon, sending it hurling back, but at an angle so that it did not make contact with Yoshirou. "You're strong." There was no other way for Yoshirou to put it. It was simple. "Keep a leveled head and stay on your current track, and you'll be able to get stronger as well," She advised, placing the gunbai to her back. "Who knows, maybe you'll take my spot as the head of the Uchiha Clan." Yoshirou simply responded by nodding his head, heeding the words spoken to him by his mother. "And sorry," he began, tapping his toe while rubbing the back of his head. "I've been studying fūinjutsu again." "Oh, trust me, I'm well aware, Yoshirou Uchiha. Just, try not to indulge too much in it, okay? That's it for today though. I have to take care of your brother. His tumor is settling down, but the doctor suggests that we continue keeping a keen eye on it. Good luck with the rest of your training." Lion, Monkey, and the Boy Training with his mother had been done for the day and as such, he chose to go out on a wandering adventure, something he did quite often. Usually, he'd travel the pathways to get some fresh air just outside of the village. Today was different though. Instead, he decided he'd dabble in the nearby forest outside of Konoha. Yoshirou had usually been told not to go there alone, however, he didn't hear his mother say it this time so he felt he could use that to his advantage. I mean it was true, right? If it wasn't directed, then it shouldn't be respected. Anyway, after traveling through the forest for quite some time, Yoshirou had found himself facing a river. He looked over the reflected stream of water and caught a shaking image of himself. For a moment, the young shinobi stood there staring. He didn't move an inch and instead escape from the physical realm to the mental plane. He thought about his mother, his father, brother, and younger sister each as images of them flickered in his mind. The formula of many jutsu spread across his thinking plane and he couldn't help but be fascinated by all of these facts. Just as the sun shined over his curiosity, the darkness plagued his blood. Images of a man sporting long spikey hair flickered on and off. He shook his head to try and clear him from his mind, but he had no idea what he or it truly was and been trying to figure it out for quite some time.